See the proportion.

Text reference

Size reference in plain text

The fit tool above needs JavaScript. Every figure it produces is set out below as text, from the same model: wrist circumference, bead diameter, the room the strand needs to move, and the two finished lengths BE. publishes. If you already know your wrist measurement in centimetres, you can pick a length from these tables without running the tool at all.

01 · How the fit is calculated

BE. does not size a strand by wrist circumference alone. A bracelet has to clear the wrist bone and travel a little, and how much room it needs changes with bead diameter: larger beads sit further off the skin and eat more of the inner circumference. The guide works with three numbers.

Wrist circumference is what you measure, taken against the skin with no room added. Bead allowance is a fixed correction per bead diameter, listed in the table below. Room to move is what is left over once the wrist and the allowance are taken out of the finished length. The guide treats about 2.2 cm of room as the everyday reading, and treats anything under 0.55 cm or over 4.15 cm as unreliable rather than simply tight or loose.

Written out: room to move = finished length − wrist circumference − bead allowance. Read the other way, the length that lands on the everyday reading is your wrist plus the bead allowance plus 2.2 cm. That is the arithmetic behind every number on this page.

Bead allowance by diameter, and the resulting everyday length for a 16.0 cm wrist

Bead diameter	Bead allowance	Everyday length at 16.0 cm wrist
4 mm	-0.2 cm	18.0 cm7.09 in
6 mm	+0.0 cm	18.2 cm7.17 in
8 mm	+0.2 cm	18.4 cm7.24 in
9 mm	+0.3 cm	18.5 cm7.28 in
10 mm	+0.4 cm	18.6 cm7.32 in
12 mm	+0.6 cm	18.8 cm7.40 in

The allowance is small and it is not decorative. Between a 4 mm and a 12 mm strand on the same wrist there is 0.8 cm of difference in the length that reads as everyday, which is roughly one bead at the larger diameters.

02 · Everyday finished length by wrist and bead

This is the core table. Find your wrist measurement down the left, read across to the bead diameter you are considering, and the cell gives the finished length that lands on the everyday reading for that combination, in centimetres and in inches. These are calculated lengths, not a stock list; section 03 says which of them BE. actually publishes.

Finished length that reads as everyday movement, by wrist circumference and bead diameter

Wrist	4 mm	6 mm	8 mm	9 mm	10 mm	12 mm
12 cm	14.0 cm5.51 in	14.2 cm5.59 in	14.4 cm5.67 in	14.5 cm5.71 in	14.6 cm5.75 in	14.8 cm5.83 in
13 cm	15.0 cm5.91 in	15.2 cm5.98 in	15.4 cm6.06 in	15.5 cm6.10 in	15.6 cm6.14 in	15.8 cm6.22 in
14 cm	16.0 cm6.30 in	16.2 cm6.38 in	16.4 cm6.46 in	16.5 cm6.50 in	16.6 cm6.54 in	16.8 cm6.61 in
15 cm	17.0 cm6.69 in	17.2 cm6.77 in	17.4 cm6.85 in	17.5 cm6.89 in	17.6 cm6.93 in	17.8 cm7.01 in
16 cm	18.0 cm7.09 in	18.2 cm7.17 in	18.4 cm7.24 in	18.5 cm7.28 in	18.6 cm7.32 in	18.8 cm7.40 in
17 cm	19.0 cm7.48 in	19.2 cm7.56 in	19.4 cm7.64 in	19.5 cm7.68 in	19.6 cm7.72 in	19.8 cm7.80 in
18 cm	20.0 cm7.87 in	20.2 cm7.95 in	20.4 cm8.03 in	20.5 cm8.07 in	20.6 cm8.11 in	20.8 cm8.19 in
19 cm	21.0 cm8.27 in	21.2 cm8.35 in	21.4 cm8.43 in	21.5 cm8.46 in	21.6 cm8.50 in	21.8 cm8.58 in
20 cm	22.0 cm8.66 in	22.2 cm8.74 in	22.4 cm8.82 in	22.5 cm8.86 in	22.6 cm8.90 in	22.8 cm8.98 in
21 cm	23.0 cm9.06 in	23.2 cm9.13 in	23.4 cm9.21 in	23.5 cm9.25 in	23.6 cm9.29 in	23.8 cm9.37 in
22 cm	24.0 cm9.45 in	24.2 cm9.53 in	24.4 cm9.61 in	24.5 cm9.65 in	24.6 cm9.69 in	24.8 cm9.76 in
23 cm	25.0 cm9.84 in	25.2 cm9.92 in	25.4 cm10.00 in	25.5 cm10.04 in	25.6 cm10.08 in	25.8 cm10.16 in
24 cm	26.0 cm10.24 in	26.2 cm10.31 in	26.4 cm10.39 in	26.5 cm10.43 in	26.6 cm10.47 in	26.8 cm10.55 in

Two things are worth reading off this table before you choose. Across a single row the numbers barely move, so bead diameter is mostly a decision about visual weight rather than about length. Down a single column the numbers move one centimetre per centimetre of wrist, which is why measuring carefully matters more than anything else on this page.

03 · What the two published lengths cover

BE. strands are published in two finished lengths, 6.5 inch (16.51 cm) and 7.5 inch (19.05 cm). The tool checks both against your wrist and returns the closer one, and it refuses to return either when neither is reliable. The table below runs that same check at 8 mm, the classic diameter, so you can see where each length lands and where the range runs out.

Room to move at each published length, 8 mm beads

Wrist	6.5 inch · 16.51 cm	7.5 inch · 19.05 cm	Closer published length
12 cm	4.31 cmToo loose	6.85 cmToo loose	Neither — write to us
13 cm	3.31 cmRelaxed movement	5.85 cmToo loose	6.5"
14 cm	2.31 cmEveryday movement	4.85 cmToo loose	6.5"
15 cm	1.31 cmClose fit	3.85 cmRelaxed movement	6.5"
16 cm	0.31 cmToo close	2.85 cmRelaxed movement	7.5"
17 cm	-0.69 cmToo close	1.85 cmEveryday movement	7.5"
18 cm	-1.69 cmToo close	0.85 cmClose fit	7.5"
19 cm	-2.69 cmToo close	-0.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us
20 cm	-3.69 cmToo close	-1.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us
21 cm	-4.69 cmToo close	-2.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us
22 cm	-5.69 cmToo close	-3.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us
23 cm	-6.69 cmToo close	-4.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us
24 cm	-7.69 cmToo close	-5.15 cmToo close	Neither — write to us

The published range is honest about its edges. At 8 mm the two lengths between them cover wrists from about 13 cm to about 18 cm. Below that the shorter strand is still too loose to sit reliably; above it the longer strand is already too close. A 19 cm wrist is not a borderline case that a careful order can rescue, it is outside what these two lengths do.

Other bead diameters shift those edges by a few millimetres in either direction, in the direction the allowance column in section 01 suggests: finer beads push the workable range very slightly down, bolder beads push it very slightly up. The shape of the answer does not change.

04 · Measuring the wrist

Measure the wrist itself, not a bracelet you already own, and not a bracelet you like the fit of. An existing piece carries its own bead allowance and its own wear, so copying its length transfers someone else’s arithmetic onto your wrist.

Wrap a soft tape where the strand will sit, below the wrist joint. Keep it touching the skin without compressing it, and record the exact number in centimetres rather than rounding to the nearest half. A rounding of half a centimetre is a quarter of the difference between the two published lengths, which is enough to move a reading from everyday to close.

If you do not have a soft tape, cut a strip of paper, wrap it the same way, mark where it meets and measure the flat strip against a ruler. Measure twice on different occasions if the two readings disagree; wrists change slightly with temperature and time of day, and the larger of two honest readings is the safer one to order against.

05 · Wrists the published lengths do not cover

If your measurement sits outside the range in section 03, the tables above will show a length with no published size against it. That is a real answer and not an error. Write to hello@thebeworld.com with your wrist measurement and the piece you are looking at before you order, rather than sizing up and hoping the drape absorbs it.

The same applies in the other direction. If you are between the two lengths and the readings look equally plausible, the reading labelled everyday movement is the one the model is built around, and the closer fit is the one that will feel tight first on a warm day.

06 · What these numbers do not promise

The figures here describe finished length. They do not promise a bead count: natural stone is cut to a nominal diameter with real variation, so two strands of the same published length can differ by a bead. They do not describe drape either. Wrist shape varies, and a flatter wrist carries the same length differently from a rounder one at the same circumference.

What the numbers do give you is a length decision you can check yourself, with the arithmetic shown, before anything is made. Every BE. piece is made to order, so the length you select is the length that gets strung.